Harnessing sawdust for clean energy: production and optimization of bioethanol in Nigeria

Abstract

Sawdust biomass was successfully employed for bioethanol production using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The production process comprised three main stages: pretreatment, fermentation, and quantification of ethanol. Proximate analysis was carried out on the sawdust biomass to ascertain its potential for bioethanol production. The results showed that it has the potential for bioethanol production due to its relatively high volatile matter, low ash, and low moisture content which will improve the heating value of bioethanol. The design expert gave the optimum conditions for pretreatment and fermentation of reducing sugar. The pretreatment conditions include: 0.1% of HCl, 5 g of sawdust, pretreatment time of 45 min. which gave 0.400588 v/g as optimum value of fermentable sugar produced. While the optimum condition for fermentation of the reducing sugar produced include: 3 g of yeast, temperature of 37.5 °C and fermentation time of 48 h, which gave optimum yield 1.1824 v/g of bioethanol. These results demonstrate that sawdust is a viable, renewable, and environmentally friendly feedstock for bioethanol production.